Charlotte proposal stokes debate over transgender rights

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina's largest city may pass a law allowing transgender people to choose public bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity, prompting the governor to call the measure a threat to public safety and warn that the General Assembly may step in.

The Charlotte City Council was scheduled to vote Monday on a proposal to expand protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity, making it the latest frontier in a national debate over how businesses treat gay, lesbian and transgender customers. One of the revisions to the city's nondiscrimination ordinance would allow people to choose restrooms corresponding to the gender with which they identify.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory — a former mayor of Charlotte, one of the 20 largest cities in the U.S. according to Census figures — said in an email Sunday that changing the policy on restrooms could "create major public safety issues."

"Also, this action of allowing a person with male anatomy, for example, to use a female restroom or locker room will most likely cause immediate State legislative intervention which I would support as governor," he wrote in the email to two Council members.

The issue has been part of a national debate that included the high-profile defeat of a nondiscrimination ordinance late last year by voters in Houston, and LGBT advocates worried bathroom-access fears would be used elsewhere to fight equal-rights measures. South Dakota legislators recently passed a bill requiring students to use bathrooms corresponding to their sex at birth, though it hasn't been signed by the governor.

In North Carolina, the advocacy group Equality NC issued a statement criticizing McCrory for "perpetuating the same tired and debunked myths about transgender people and public safety." Executive director Chris Sgro accused the governor and legislators of trying "to bully the Charlotte City Council with threats to strip municipalities of their rights to govern."

Materials given to the Council ahead of the meeting cited some residents' concerns that sexual predators would use the ordinance to gain entry to women's restrooms for assault or indecent exposure, but it also noted that staff researchers hadn't uncovered any evidence of an increase in such crimes in cities with non-discrimination ordinances.

The measure up for a vote Monday night would add sexual orientation, gender identity and marital status as attributes protected from discrimination when it comes to public accommodations including restaurants, retail stores and other businesses. It would take effect in April.

A similar measure was narrowly defeated by the Charlotte City Council in March 2015, even after the removal of a provision that would have allowed bathroom use based on gender identity. Local officials later announced that transgender people could use the bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity in city- and county-owned facilities.

Members of Charlotte's LGBT community said in a survey the changes are needed because they have been denied service, received poor service or experienced disparaging comments, according to supplemental materials attached to Monday's Council agenda.

Opponents of the measure — including some clergy and business owners — have sent the City Council a letter saying businesses should have the right to refuse service based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

By Tom Foreman Jr. and Jonathan Drew. Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.

The Gayly- 3:01 PM CST